Practices with Promise Success Story

Submitted By: John Werner, Sequoias Adult Education Consortium

Lead Administrator Data Chats

Consortium:
Sequoias Adult Education Consortium (SAEC)

Type of Practice: Data & Accountability

Objective(s):Respond to short-term data reporting needs required by AEBGFoster regional and local system integration efforts pertaining to assessment and intake of adult students.Support data sharing efforts to bolster performance accountability and program evaluation.Leverage statewide efforts to build a federated and aligned workforce and education performance accountability system

Organizations that were involved: All SAEC members with an adult school, CAEP, State Center Regional Adult Education Consortium

The Challenge

Site administrators design a process to engage their peers in a structured conversation about data and ongoing program improvement. They felt gaps existed in capacity and practice from site to site. The Leadership Committee also desired a process to support administrators new to adult education. The most immediate challenge being addressed through these structured conversations is improving data collection in the TOPSPro Enterprise system. The larger challenge is using the information to drive programmatic decision making.

The Solution

To address these concerns the Leadership Committee added Data Chats to their regularly scheduled bi-weekly meetings. This process was started during the 2018/19 program year. The committee is comprised of site administrators and they chose data points with two key concepts in mind: 1. Choose data that will help you make decisions about the performance of you program in the immediate future. Year end data is important, but it does necessarily not help you run the school on a weekly basis. 2. Choose data that will help you better design your program to meet the student's needs and goals, or put differently, data that will enhance the students experience.

Outcomes

The Leadership Committer first spent time developing this conceptual approach. The first outcome was a shared understanding about why we analyze data and what data would help improve program. The next task was for to choose which resources in TOPSPro Enterprise could provide the information needed. The current list of resources each administrator brings to the Data Chat is program enrollment trends, number of completers, CAEP DIR, NRS DIR, Paypoint Summary, and Federal Tables 4, 4B, and 5. The next outcome has been the ongoing professional develop to help administrators access these resources. This is done in a peer-to-peer support model and with PD provided through CAEP. The nest outcome is the ongoing improvement in data collection.

The Data

Proof of outcome can be found in the SAEC Leadership Committee Meeting Minutes. Proof of outcome can be found in the improved DIR reports. Our data, by site, is gaining integrity. Some more advanced sites have begun using the data to modify programs to meet student needs. Proof of those outcomes can be found in enrollments and the master schedule of those more advanced sites. Proof of outcomes for support to new administrators can be found in their practices. For example, one rural site had been using TOPSPro to track enrollments, but no other data was being collected. CASAS test were not even being implemented. Staff has been trained and that small, rural school is improving. More PD technical support need has been described and planned.